The present invention relates to a device for anchoring the end of an elongated tensile flexible element, such as a natural or synthetic tendon, in the reconstruction of a torn ligament.
The device is designed to be used in the reconstruction of ligaments of limb joints, such as for example the anterior cruciate ligament of the knee joint.
The methods currently used for reconstructing the ligaments of a joint entail forming a tunnel through the ends of the bones to be connected and inserting in such tunnel an elongated element which is at once tensile and flexible and is fixed, by means of its opposite ends, at the openings of the tunnel by way of staples or other devices. The elongated element can be constituted by a gracilis tendon or semitendinosus tendon taken from the patient or by a string of synthetic filaments.
Known reconstruction methods suffer some shortcomings mostly linked to the anchoring of the ligaments. Ligament anchoring is in fact generally performed by means of staples located on the external cortex, such staples being inherently quite bulky. Moreover, external anchoring entails leaving a considerable length.
The aim of the present invention is to provide an anchoring device which allows to obviate the drawbacks currently suffered in the reconstruction of joint ligaments.
Within this aim, an object of the present invention is to provide an anchoring device which is simple and inexpensive to manufacture and which can be applied easily and quickly.
This aim and this and other objects which will become better apparent hereinafter are achieved by a device for anchoring an end of an elongated tensile flexible element guided along a tunnel formed through the bones of a joint for reconstruction of a ligament, comprising a female element, which defines an internal thread and can be inserted in said tunnel, and a male element, which defines an external thread and is adapted to be screwed with play into said female element so as to secure said elongated element between said internal and external threads.
According to another embodiment of the invention, the female element is constituted by a filament which is coiled so as to define a cylindrical helix which forms said internal thread and whose pitch is complementary to the pitch of the external thread of said male element.
In still another embodiment of the invention, the male element has a thread whose turns lie around a convex core.